Make a Plastic-Bucket Stucco Scoop

August 21, 2018

An easy to make scoop that cleans the bucket as you empty it.

Acrylic coatings come in five-gallon buckets. The custom scoops that Jason makes in the video clean the side of the bucket when you scoop the goop. The good scoops have a radius that matches the radius of a five-gallon bucket.

Sure, you can scoop mud out of a bucket with your trowel, but if you do that, you'll ruin your trowel because you will bend it by loosening the rivets. "It's like using a trowel for a hammer. Don't do it." says Kirk.

How to make the scoop

Cut the bottom six inched from a five-gallon bucket using snips, a cordless saw, whatever works for you.

Mark a centerline on the bottom of the cut bucket.

Use another bucket to draw the proper radius on the bottom. Hold the pattern bucket about a half-inch from the center line.

Trace the bucket with a sharpie.

Cut the bottom of the bucket on the line. Jason plunge-cuts a small circular saw into the bottom to make this cut.

Cut the sides of the bucket using snips (the sides are a bit flimsy and can bind a saw blade.

Taper the sides cutting a couple of inches from the top of the scoop to nothing at the bottom of the scoop.

screw a short piece of wood perpendicular to the bottom, to form the handle.

Is this scoop as good as something that you can buy at a store? Heck no, it's not. But is it going to help you finish the job if your scoop breaks or if you don't have one?"

Heck yeah.

Live long and plaster.

—Jason Giordano is part of the Giordano Plastering empire in Alameda, Calif. You can see tons more stucco and plastering videos on their YouTube channel.